Jetpack’s form block is the simplest way to add a contact form to WordPress, and it has one big advantage when emails go missing: it saves every response in your dashboard. That makes the problem easy to narrow down.
For causes that apply to every form plugin, see the full guide: Contact form not sending email? Why it happens and how to fix it.
1. Find the response in your dashboard
In WordPress, open Jetpack’s form responses screen (Jetpack → Forms, or Feedback in older versions).
- The response is listed: the form worked. The email step failed. Continue below.
- The response is in Spam: it was flagged as spam, usually by Akismet, and Jetpack does not email you about spam responses. Mark it as not spam. If real messages are regularly flagged, check what they have in common, such as links in the message.
- Nothing is there at all: the submission never completed. Test the form in a private window and check whether a cache or security plugin is blocking it.
2. Check who the email goes to
Open the page in the block editor, select the form, and look at its email settings in the sidebar. If no address is set, Jetpack sends to a default address on your site, which may be an inbox nobody checks. Enter the address where you want to receive responses and update the page.
3. Make WordPress able to send the email
On a self-hosted site Jetpack sends notifications through WordPress’s own wp_mail(), which by default uses the server’s PHP mail function. That brings the usual problems: no SPF or DKIM, hosts that block or limit mail, and emails rejected or sent to spam by Gmail and Outlook.
Test it: request a password reset for a test user. If that email also never arrives, WordPress cannot send mail and you need to send through an authenticated service. Our guide to fixing WordPress email walks through it.
Once WordPress sends through an authenticated service, Jetpack responses, password resets, WooCommerce receipts and every other site email are fixed at the same time.
4. If the email is sent but you cannot find it
Then it was filtered by your mail provider. Follow the guide for yours:
The SecureSMTP WordPress plugin sends Jetpack’s notifications, like all your site’s email, through an authenticated, DKIM-signed connection, and logs each one so you can see it was delivered.
Frequently asked questions
Are Jetpack form responses lost if the email fails?
No. Jetpack stores every response in your WordPress dashboard, so you can still read them under the Forms (or Feedback) responses screen even when the notification email never arrives.
Why do I get some Jetpack responses by email but not others?
Most often because the missing ones were flagged as spam. Responses marked as spam are filed in the Spam view of your responses and do not send you an email.
Does this apply to sites hosted on WordPress.com?
This guide is for self-hosted WordPress sites running the Jetpack plugin. On WordPress.com the email is sent by WordPress.com itself, so the server mail fixes below do not apply.